Sandra Evers is associate professor and senior researcher at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Dr Evers’ research programmes principally address issues of cultural transmission and change. In this regard, she directs two Research Programmes: (1) Development as a Trojan Horse? Foreign Large-scale Land Acquisitions in Ethiopia, Madagascar and Uganda” for which she recently was awarded the funding (including four PhD projects) by NWO-Wotro in recognition of its groundbreaking features and excellence; (2) Culturing Neuroscience: Self-representation, Mediation and Theory of Mind among Children and Adolescents in the Netherlands. This Programme is also considered innovative as it brings disciplines together, neuroscience and the social sciences, whose approaches to research with children hitherto had been conducted in relative isolation.

Ideology and the self-fulfilling prophecy in conservation and social science research

Sandra J. T. M. Evers

Abstract

In this essay, I propose an analytical model, ‘zones of intermediality’, designed to research socio-cultural dynamics in foreign large-scale land projects. ‘Zones of intermediality’ refers to the ontological grids of (inter)national-local stakeholder encounters where diverse ideologies, discourses and practices of land use and valuation are mediated. The model was constructed to analyze conceptual similarities and differences between and within stakeholder groups in such land projects. Just as local ‘communities’ are composed of people with varied social realities, economies, political relations, knowledge, views and perceptions, so are other stakeholder groups. Researchers are not immune to such realities. The subjectivity and epistemologycal rooting of the researcher impact on what he or she sees in the field and what is eventually reported in research publications. Thus, the essay argues for a reflection on these processes in view of the fact that we ourselves mediate representations of ‘local’ people to academic and non-academic audiences. I hope that the ‘zones of intermediality’ model will be useful in facilitating such reflections.

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